Vic Bellerby’s fighting liner
notes ascribe part the relative neglect of
the Mills Blue Rhythm Band to the number of
leaders who fronted the band. In this disc
for instance we have Edgar Hayes, Lucky Millinder
and Baron Lee (Jimmy Ferguson) though others,
such as Eddie Mallory and Dave Nelson, also
did the honours.

A bigger problem surely lay
in the arrangers. The band rather lacked a
corporate identity, a common complaint levelled
at it over the years, but one sustained by
the evidence. There were stellar arrangers
such as Benny Carter but the bulk belonged
to Joe Garland and to Hayes himself and individuals
such as Tab Smith. Nevertheless the band boasted
powerful soloists. Trumpeter Ed Anderson was
one and altoist Charlie Holmes another. Underrated
trombonist Henry Hicks shows what a powerful
stylist he was and is certainly not disgraced
in comparison with so superb a member of the
later band (under Millinder’s leadership)
as J C Higginbotham. In Hayes the band had
an arranger and pianist of considerable gifts
even if one prone to the occasional extravagance.

These tracks cover the Hayes-Baron
Lee-Millinder years of 1931-36. Propelled
by the magnificent bass playing of Hayes Alvis
the band swings powerfully. Its orientation
is often very Ellingtonian in both content
and sonority – it’s often written off as a
Cotton Club Ellington relief band - with tight
sectional discipline and a vigorous approach
to the repertoire. The notes actually miss
a trick or two. Shortly before the earliest
of these sessions the core of the band had
toured as Louis Armstrong’s backing band,
and had even recorded with him. This accounts
for the element of Armstrong worship in the
vocals of George Morton, one of the earliest
(and as it happens, best) of the many Armstrong
impersonators on record.

Though Hayes proves confident
in boogie and stride – he was a forward-looking
player - he meets his match in the one Fats
Waller appearance. Other cross currents include
the lucid and imaginatively scored Weary
Traveller written by British bandleader
and composer Spike Hughes, whose advanced
thinking had already reached fruition in his
New York recordings with Benny Carter’s band.
The later post November 1933 band boasted
such huge talents as Red Allen, Higginbotham
and Buster Bailey. Allen growls, Higginbotham
powers through Barrelhouse and finally
the band had a first call clarinettist in
the shape of Bailey.

As a bonus lexicographers
will also enjoy a rare use on record of the
word "bodacious" in the 1935 Red
Allen vehicle Ride Red Ride (actually
Tiger Rag). This is actually, properly,
"bowdacious", a popular enough word
in the American South in the nineteenth century,
long before Beyoncé took to shaking
her booty.

Pugnacious notes from a Mills
Blue Rhythm admirer and good transfers add
to the desirability of this release.